Megacyllene - Megacyllene angulifera

We all have our biases!

… Pamela Piombino, 7 September, 2021 - 10:35am

Absolutely!!

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 10:47am

Cicindela

Things get fuzzy for me from last week!! At 71 and trying to concentrate on the moths, I struggle so much with remembering names. Some stick, but many don't.

… Pamela Piombino, 7 September, 2021 - 10:24am

Thanks for the warning! :-)

You have exactly a decade on me, so I know what to expect! I have a bad habit of forgetting people's names, while remembering those of insects...

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 10:27am

Cicindela

Looking back at my postings on iNaturalist, it was a Cicindela purpurea ssp. audubonii, found on September 21, 2018. I wasn't too late, but I doubt I was too early. We combed the area for a while, but only found some Asilidaes otherwise.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16814380

… Pamela Piombino, 7 September, 2021 - 10:14am

That's a nice one too...

I don't think I've ever come across purpurea other than once in southern Ohio - but I'd have to check the collection to confirm that one - it would have been in the late 1980's... things get a little fuzzy after a few decades!!

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 10:18am

Megacyllene angulifera

Thank you for the i.d. and your comments. My naturalist friend and I who were out exploring the prairie noticed immediately the different plant community on the sandy clay. I had found an interesting Cicindela there previously, but was too late in the season to refind the tiger. The Megacyllene certainly made up for it. Pam

… Pamela Piombino, 7 September, 2021 - 10:05am

Any chance

the cicindelid you were seeking was Cicindela pulchra? I ask only because I collected that species in the same locality as the M. angulifera in southern Kansas. That was a first for me - a truly beautiful species! This was during the last week of September back in 2015.

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 10:09am

Nice observation!

Megacyllene angulifera is one of the more uncommon species in the genus, despite a fairly wide distribution in the central United States. The reddish ground color, reddish appendages and the tendency for the apical elytral bands to fuse into a large apical patch all help ID the species. In the three localities that I've collected the species (in TX, NB and KS), all were in sparsely vegetated, clay-sand soils.

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 9:32am

Moved

Moved from Long-horned Beetles.

… Robert Androw, 7 September, 2021 - 9:27am

Moved

Moved from Long-horned Beetles.

… Bruce Tilden, 6 September, 2021 - 7:22pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Bruce Tilden, 6 September, 2021 - 7:22pm